Rating: NNNNN
Thu, May 15
School’s out
The School’s Out Forever tour brings Atlanta hotshot Treasure Fingers and NYC up-and-comer Kill the Noise to Wrongbar. Expect yer standard electro and indie dance faves along with some new-school disco flavours. Both do the buzz-saw synths thing well but also have enough love of melody and soul to stay relevant once that fad burns itself out.
Fri, May 16
Droppping out
Circa’s Randomland Fridays have enough brand strength to be able to hand the main room over to underground artists who would normally play rooms a fraction the size. This time around it’s Brooklyn’s Drop the Lime, who’s already proven himself locally at smaller events over the past year. From the other side of the continent, they’re bringing in Franki Chan, who runs the hot L.A. record label and party Iheartcomix.
Sat, May 17
Karaoke time
The Never Forgive Action crew didn’t invent the concept behind Hip-Hop Karaoke, but they’ve certainly made it their own. In recent months they’ve outgrown their old home at the Boat and moved it to the Gladstone Hotel, where you can catch Dalia, More Or Les and Ted Dancin’ holding down the fort as Toronto MCs try to remember the words to their favourite rap classics.
Call him Mr.
The Kings of Late Nite crew celebrate two years of house music parties by bringing deep house producer/DJ/vocalist Mr. V to Footwork for a night of eclectic soulful beats. Coming with him from NYC is Taylor McFerrin, who does a unique one-man-band live performance bridging hip-hop, soul, broken beat and house.
Drugs are good
The Dmoney team are back with another edition of the Drugs theme party at Sneaky Dee’s. No, they’re not giving out baggies of mystery pills the concept is songs about drugs or by famous druggies, from any genre. Headlining this one are Philly’s Caps n’ Jones, who can throw down the open-format sets with the best of them, and Brooklyn’s Cousin Cole, whose remix of Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire just had the whole office chair-dancing.
Sun, May 18
Be somebody
Veteran house DJ Danny Tenaglia makes relatively rare appearances in town, so when he does it’s a major event. He’s best known for his ability to play marathon DJ sets lasting 12 hours or more and somehow managing to keep a good chunk of the crowd there from beginning to end. This will be his first appearance at Circa, so let’s hope he enjoys himself enough to do the long haul this time as well. Expect everything from dark tribal to deep disco, and maybe even some minimal techno.
Legendary
The Legends series presents one of the true legends of house music, Frankie Knuckles, at the Mod Club. Since the genre was named after his residency at Chicago club the Warehouse, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone else more deserving of the title. After all these years, he’s still one of the best bets for a night of quality boom boom.
benjaminb@nowtoronto.com
